NOTE: This is a personal record of my experience with this game and is in no
way an official document.
I have the Japanese version of the game.
Updates:
Several minor cheats
Miscellaneous info added about sliding, cars, language, music.
Introduction:
-------------
Rage Racer is the third Namco title in the Racer series, and in some respects
it is similar. However, the majority of the game is structured differently and
this makes it an essential purchase even if you have either or both of the
prequels.
New Features:
-------------
High resolution menu screens
Ability to paint your car and design the main logo on the bonnet
Grand Prix mode which replaces the arcade mode from RR & RRR
Car performance upgrades
Excellent FMV intro. and various FMV clips as you progress
Game Modes:
===========
GRAND PRIX MODE:
----------------
There are five classes to progress through, then five on reverse tracks then a
final class with special cars.
Classes 1 & 2 (both normal and reverse) consist of three tracks, then classes
3,4,5 & 6 add an additional track to these.
To play the game you must race through all the tracks in the class and finish
in the top three in each. You can play the tracks in any order to achieve
this. You will get a gold silver or bronze medallion for each track depending
on your position. Once you have a medallion for each track you can proceed to
the next class where prize money for races is greater and more cars become
available to buy.
To begin with there is only one car in your collection. After you have won
some money in races you can either upgrade this car or enter the car shop
Upgrading:
----------
In the Engineer shop you can buy a tune up kit for your car. Every car has a
maximum grade of 5. The cheaper cars start at grade 1 or 2 which gives them
low performance ratings. When you buy a tune up kit, the grade is increased by
one, and the performance of the car increases. In addition to this
upgradeability of the cars, they each have specific handling characteristics.
Not only does the performance change with tune up kits, but the cars start to
get wider wheel arches and larger spoilers and air dams etc. This makes them
look much more powerful to match the performance increase.
Car Shop:
---------
Here you can browse through the cars that have become available and see their
starting grades and performance specs. If you have enough cash you can buy a
new car.
TIME ATTACK MODE:
----------------
Here you can race on all the tracks you have obtained, with all the cars you
have bought. Your cars will be at the highest grade you have made them during
your grand prix mode. There does not seem to be a way of altering the paint
colours of the cars or their grades once in this mode. Records are kept of the
top five total times and lap times for each track, stating the car used for
each.
Cars:
=====
Make Model Description
Gnade Esperanza Saloon car
Age Alouette Micro car
Age Abeille Renault Five Turbo clone
Age Pegase Lotus 7 clone
Lizard Instinct Firebird clone
Lizard Bayonet Corvette clone
Lizard Hijack Lowrider Pickup
Assoluto Fatalita Fast Car featured in intro
Assoluto Istante Bugatti clone
Assoluto Ghepardo Looks like a Le Mans Porsche
Age Victoire Prototype car
Lizard Tempest Hot Rod with enormous rear wheels
Assoluto Dragone Dart like car
Tracks:
=======
All the tracks share the same start/finish straight along with a steep climb
past a massive waterfall. The straight has a glass canopy housing the line,
which is illuminated at night, along with a large stone archway, similar to
the Arc de Triomphe.
Mystical Coast: 4641m
---------------------
After passing the waterfall, a straight tunnel leads to a steep drop down to
the coast. The road runs along the coast, past Mediterranean style houses and
a chapel. Climbing back inland past ancient ruins, a hairpin leads back to the
main straight through and curving tunnel.
Over Pass City: 6640m
---------------------
The longest track is also the most spectacular. The first tunnel of the
Mythical Coast track is partially blocked off and the road is taken away to
the right, down a winding route before opening up at the base of the largest
climb in the game. Past a working tram and various buildings the road finally
reaches the summit and falls slowly through more tunnels, and winding corners.
After passing over a hillside bridge, a steep drop leads under a bridge, past
a lighthouse, then winds round to past over itself before rejoining the
start/section.
Lakeside Gate: 6237m
--------------------
Although shorter than Over Pass City, this has some beautiful scenery to
admire. Now leading left from that initial tunnel, the route is laden with
hills, tunnels and tight corners, along with a cable car passing overhead. The
main attraction though is when the road opens up by a lake, which reflects the
surrounding objects. After passing around the lakeside, you cross a bridge,
and drive through a woodland scene, before a tight hairpin leads back to the
main straight.
The Extreme Oval: 3074m
-----------------------
This simply consists of a loop which connects the two ends of the main
straight. There is one long tunnel and banked corners.
Don't even try to win races here until you have bought one of the Assoluto
cars.
Gameplay:
=========
In Grand Prix Mode, you will find it necessary to repeat races in the lower
classes to build up funds to either buy a new car or tune up your existing
model. If you don't it becomes very hard to get into the top three, as the
opposition become faster.
You need to decide on what style suits you too, in order to concentrate on
upgrading a particular style of car. For example, if you prefer a car with
good handling that can take corners fast then you need to keep upgrading this
to get a competitive top speed and acceleration. Alternatively there are cars
that already accelerate fast enough, but have worse handling, so these are
suited to powersliding around corners.
Game Structure:
===============
This describes the progress through the game, as far as I have got at least.
1.Play through Grand Prix Mode and finish the fifth class.
2.Extra GP mode is activated which runs the courses backwards.
3.The new reverse tracks are added to the time attack menu.
4.Complete the Extra GP mode to activate the sixth class.
5.Sixth class makes three special cars available to buy.
6.Complete sixth class.
Useful Tips:
============
While you may only need five of the cars to complete the first five classes,
it may be a good idea to buy all the cars and upgrade them to the maximum
before you complete the fifth class.
Once this is completed you must either reload from your previous save game
slot or restart the Grand Prix mode from scratch. By doing this you can get
all the cars reasonably easily with the high prize money in the fifth class,
and add them all to your time attack collection.
Once the sixth class is activated, you need to buy some of the special cars to
have a hope of competing against a field made up solely of these demonic
vehicles.
When I raced the sixth class, I found the only way to compete was to ignore
the powerslides and try to brake for tight corners. This usually meant hitting
the wall but it turned out faster than trying to regain grip with these cars.
You really can only afford to collide once with another car in order to finish
first. Mythical Coast seems to be the hardest to win because it is the
shortest, giving you least time to recover if you make a mistake.
I am at present trying to get Gold on Mythical Coast to complete my gold
trophy collection, so without powersliding, the sixth class is winnable.
Anyone who has played the previous games in the series will recognize the
control method and the powerslide method it the same. It seems to be easier to
overdo a slide, so reverse lock is necessary sooner.
Basically:
1.Release accelerate before the bend
2.Turn into the bend
3.Press accelerate again
4.Counter the slide with opposite lock
5.Once straightened out the car should regain grip
With the three class ? cars I never try to powerslide as I find I lose too
much time trying to regain grip. However it seems to be easier to regain grip
if you follow this method.
1.Release accelerate before the bend
2.Turn into the bend
3.Press accelerate again to force the slide, then release it.
4.Counter the slide and change down a few gears and straighten out.
5.Press accelerate again.
As I said I find powersliding too inconsistent with these cars but this method
would give me the best chance if I was forced to slide.
The Trophy system works as follows:
To obtain a gold trophy for any class, you must place first in all the races
within this class on your first attempt in the class. Once the class is
completed you cannot return to it and retry the races. You need to start the
Grand Prix Mode again from the start or reload from a previous savegame. Once
a trophy is won it is kept in the saved game, no matter how many times the
Grand Prix mode is restarted.
It seems likely that there will be some reward for obtaining a gold trophy in
all the classes, given that it takes such an effort to do so. In fact it has
been written elsewhere on the Internet that a new track is activated.
Other possibilities for secrets may be:
1. Access to all the cars in the game. If you watch the demos you will see
cars that are not offered in the shop.
2. Time of day option, like that found in RRR.
3. Mirror Mode - see below
4. A Grand Prix Mode that includes all tracks in reverse and mirrored.
Note that these are simply ideas of my own and do not imply any extra
knowledge of this game.
Swap Trick / Music
==================
I have the Japanese version running on a PAL machine, to which I have fitted a
two-way door switch on the front instead of using blu-tac, springs etc.
There has been some discussion in the newsgroups about language and music
problems when buying the Japanese game. Here are the only bits of Japanese in
the whole game that I can remember, along with what I assume they mean.
1. In SAVE/LOAD screen: Reading Data, Loading Game, Saving Game, Are you sure
you want to overwrite? Yes/No
2. When selecting End Grandprix: Save Game? Yes/No
3. When Tuning up car: This car is fully upgraded already, Do you want to buy
this upgrade? Yes/No
4. When in Car Shop: You do not have enough money for this,
5. When in customize menu: This car cannot be customized (Super Cars only)
This is for the benefit of those thinking of buying the game, as I'm sure
those who already have it will have figured this out for themselves. There may
be a few more but I can't remember them and they really are self explanatory
when you buy it.
As far as music is concerned, you can get full music by swapping in the audio
menu. By this I mean using a native disc, letting it spin for a while and
swapping it for RR before the music tracks appear on the screen. It is easier
to use a native disc that has many tracks and so takes longer to read the
tracks. If done correctly, the PSX will read the boot data from the native
disc, and then the track data from the RR disc.
I prefer this method because you can see instantly if it has worked. If the
tracks appear for RR, and you can play them as normal in the CD player screen,
then there won't be any problems in the game. If the RR disc spins very, very
quickly for a while then slows, you need to try again, and wait a little
longer before swapping. If you wait too long the native disc tracks will
appear and swapping won't do anything.
Again this works for me and I take no responsibility for broken PlayStations
if you try this method.
Cheats/Extra Options
====================
1. Extra palette options:
In paint mode, move to the palette of colors and press R1+R2+L1+L2+Select.
If done correctly, R,G and B options will appear to the right.
Use up/down to select one of these, R2+up/down to change the values
Pressing select will toggle crosshairs and zoom box on/off
2. Manipulate paint image:
When not on the palette:
Hold R1 to slide the image around
Hold R1+R2 then right to flip horizontally, down to flip vertically, up to
rotate 90 deg one way, left to rotate 90 deg the other way.
3. Mirror Tracks:
Once you have pressed Race Start, hold R1 + L1 + Start + Select until race
begins.
4. Rear View Mirror:
Pause the game once the mirror has appeared. Hold triangle and press L1 to
remove mirror and R1 to restore it.
5. When in track select or car select use the shoulder 1 buttons to spin the
car/track faster or slower, and the shoulder 2 buttons to steer the front
wheels.
If you have any questions please email me at:
d-dainton@msn.com

Please
note that A.P.I shall not be held responsible for the accuracy of this
article.